


Because She's Ruby

by Dawniebb



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: F/M, Osby needs love, chronic pain mention, post-supernova, written while listening to because she's rayla from the tdp soundtrack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22779958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawniebb/pseuds/Dawniebb
Summary: "It’s about your powers… kinda. So, uhm, if you don’t wanna talk about it I completely understand and if you don’t want me to ask just tell me and I promise I wo…”“Here we go again.” Ruby’s face lost all its amusement as if Oscar had just ruined a very special moment. She even let go of his hand to scratch one of her temples. Tiredness was flowing out of her.“Look, I’m not mad. Not at all.” She said, even though Oscar knew she was…Well, maybe she wasn’t mad. Annoyed was the correct word. “I just don’t know why you guys are so interested in that."
Relationships: Oscar Silva | Smokescreen/Ruby Tucker | Red Assassin
Kudos: 17





	Because She's Ruby

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys, so… Osby needs love :) like, a lot of love. I LOVE Nodrian with all my heart and they absolutely ruined my life but I love Osby too :’) I feel they should’ve been canon since Archenemies. They were kinda overshadowed in Supernova by all the stuff that was going down and I don’t think that was fair for them 

“Do you need help with that?”

“Oh. Yes, Danna. Thank you." 

From the corner of his eye, Oscar saw Danna rushing towards Ruby. 

It had been a rough training day, so everybody was tired as heck. Oscar could even hear all the internal screaming coming out of the ones who still had to do patrols; thank the odds that wasn’t their case. At least, not that Oscar knew. If they were to have patrolling that night, Adrian would’ve already told them, and Nova wouldn’t have dismissed herself from the duty to go to the Vault. 

Well, at least they had some positive points on their side. At the minute they were ready, they would be able to go home and rest. After all, Oscar was so tired he didn’t even have the energy to suggest they should stop somewhere to have dinner. The Council had been pretty strict these days thanks to the changes they’d made after the war ("It wasn’t a war” Adrian said every time. But it had been a war. Oscar could feel it. He was a war hero) and the Patrol Units were going through a “humanization” process. This meant that every day they had to attend different lectures and workshops that helped them develop problem-solving skills and also assisted them in giving their powers an assertive use (In other words: Teach the Patrol Units how NOT to be Team Frostbite). Of course, they also had to take some hours of physical training. It was absolutely exhausting. 

Ruby had decided to get into the showers. Right now she was already changed, but her hair was still soaking wet as it hung barely below her shoulders. 

Danna sat next to her and grabbed her bag, from where she took out the bandages Ruby always carried with her. Then, she proceeded to start wrapping them around Ruby’s arm, just where her forever-open wound was located. 

That was when the sound completely cut off in Oscar’s head and he just stared at them.

Nobody dared to ask Ruby about her wounds. After all, trauma-induced powers were a difficult issue to talk about; Something very personal, even with your most intimate friends or your team. Back at the Arena, Ruby had said something about it. Something that still haunted Oscar every night when it came to his mind and, now that she was his girlfriend (finally), felt also personal to him as if it were also his problem. 

And yet, as Danna wrapped bandages around her arm, she seemed so…calm. They were even talking and laughing about something Oscar couldn’t hear (he was too distracted). 

She looked so normal and so chill and so…her. 

But most importantly, through his eyes, she looked strong. 

Strong in a somewhat painful kind of way. 

“Is it too tight?” Danna asked, gently. Ruby moved her arm a couple of times and then, smiling, she answered: 

“Nah. It’s okay like that. Thanks again, Danna." 

"You’re welcome.” Danna said as she stood up and stretched herself. Although she was also tired, Danna looked as full of energy as ever. Fresh as lettuce (To be fair, she did mention she was excited about the changes made by the Council). 

(Maybe she just wanted Nova to shut up, though). 

“Do you need a ride home?" 

"Nah.” Ruby smiled. And when Danna turned to him, Oscar barely noticed she wasn’t talking to Ruby anymore. He had even forgotten they could see him in the first place. 

“What about you?" 

"Yes… I mean, no. ” Oscar grunted and passed a hand through his face. “No. I’m okay too." 

Ruby stared at him with a smile and a raised eyebrow. Danna, on the other side, directed a mischevious expression at them and then patted Ruby’s shoulder. 

"Fine. I better head out, so… I’ll leave you lovebirds alone. Have fun." 

Oscar snorted. 

"Don’t get arrested.” He suggested, and Danna winked from the door, before finally leaving. 

And just like that, they were alone, and it felt really strange as if it were the first time they had been alone in months, even though just this morning they were sitting alone in the cafeteria, sharing a pair of earphones. 

They looked at each other for a minute and Ruby burst into laughing. 

“What?” She asked, bringing Oscar back to life. 

“Nothing.” He answered, but when Ruby gave him this "I know that’s not it" look, he added: 

“You’re cute." 

She didn’t buy it at all. Instead, she placed her hand in the free space next to her, asking Oscar to sit down. Which he did, after a second. 

Ruby took his hand and rested her head on his shoulder. Oscar decided to play with her nails while he thought about something to say; he could notice they needed to be painted again, as the blue nail polish was coming off. He had tried to paint them once, but he had failed miserably. 

It had been a pair of months ago, during movie night. That time Oscar decided to choose dare instead of truth and, without an inch of hesitation, Danna brought Ruby’s cosmetic case. 

Things went downhill after that. 

Oscar chuckled at the memory. 

"What is it? What are you thinking about?" 

"Oh, it’s nothing. ” Oscar answered. “Remember that time I painted your nails with an ugly rotten-egg-color? " 

"Oh, yeah. ” She laughed. “ That took years to come off. I think the nail polish was expired or something." 

"Why did you even buy it in the first place? ” Oscar asked. “It was…so ugly. " 

"It didn’t look that ugly on the shelves. ” Ruby answered, widening her eyes in order to emphasize the sentence. “It actually looked like a pretty… Uhm… Christmas green." 

"What the heck is Christmas green?" 

"Well, I don’t know. But like, there’s a very specific type of green you relate to Christmas. Bright, shiny green. Christmas green.”

“So you were planning to put Christmas green…on your nails." 

"I’m very festive." 

And then she laughed again, but this time Oscar joined her until she lowed her head again and he felt her forehead touching his shoulder. 

Having a moment (It was a moment, wasn’t it?) in the Headquarters’ benches was certainly strange. Oscar supposed it was as weird as two coworkers spending quality time together at the office. Still, he couldn’t complain. Every moment he could spend with Ruby was valid, no matter where they were. 

He somehow liked that, even though they were a couple now, they still acted like silly best friends; silly best friends that sometimes kissed, because they had the cuddling part covered way before they even came to the realization they liked each other (At least in Oscar’s case, as he realized he liked Ruby after she realized she liked him). Being with her made him feel comfortable and her presence was so chill and familiar it made any moment special. Geez, they could even have a date in a horrible fast food restaurant and they would surely have blast. 

Ruby was all of that. She had this aura that could make you fall in love not just with the moment, but also with her. 

And she was so brave. 

Which lead him to remember everything again. That moment in the Arena. Not their first kiss, but the situation as a whole. He remembered her, and how for a moment he was able to see the utter suffering in her hazel eyes. 

She was so strong it was almost inconceivable. And she had always been that strong, even before they found themselves caught up in this Anarchists VS. Renegades mess in the Arena and the Cathedral. 

"Can I ask you something?" 

She must’ve perceived the odd seriousness in his tone because under normal circumstances she would’ve answered with a playful "You just did”. But she didn’t. Instead, she answered: 

“Of course. What is it?" 

Oscar took a deep breath, trying to phrase the question correctly before saying it out loud. 

"It’s about your powers… kinda. So, uhm, if you don’t wanna talk about it I completely understand and if you don’t want me to ask just tell me and I promise I wo…”

“Here we go again.” Ruby’s face lost all its amusement as if Oscar had just ruined a very special moment. She even let go of his hand to scratch one of her temples. Tiredness was flowing out of her. 

“Look, I’m not mad. Not at all.” She said, even though Oscar knew she was…Well, maybe she wasn’t mad. Annoyed was the correct word. “I just don’t know why you guys are so interested in that." 

"Like I said: You don’t need to answer if it makes you uncomfortable or…" 

"Period blood doesn’t crystalize. It’s not a wound.”

Oscar felt as if a bucket of ice water was being poured upon him. He thought about laughing because he found her resignation genuinely funny, but he didn’t. A part of him felt kind of guilty because the truth was he had thought about it many times. 

In his defense, if there were people who asked her about it before, that meant it was a valid doubt. 

However, that wasn’t what his concern was about. 

“Good to know. ” He tried to joke. “But it wasn’t that." 

Ruby blinked. 

"Oh?" 

"It’s about… your wounds. ” Ruby’s face relaxed again and she nodded, allowing him to continue. 

“Do they…? ” Oscar coughed. “Do they really hurt like all the time? All the time? Non-stop? ”

Ruby bit her lip as she stared at her bandages as if they were to give her the answer to the question. She grabbed Oscar’s hand again. Her hands were cold. 

“I… ” She said, in a hoarse voice. “ Yes. They never stopped hurting. And they keep doing it. Non-stop. From the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. Then I wake up again and it’s like… ”

Ruby stopped to breath. 

“Pain. Pain. Pain. ” She chanted. “ Like…I don’t know how to explain it. Sometimes, when I think too much about it, it’s exhausting and annoying. It feels like I have somebody walking behind me, poking me with a bobby pin or a needle. 24/7. ”

“So…All the time we’ve met you…you’ve been in pain." 

"I’ve been in pain since I gained my powers.” Ruby clarified. “Every single day.”

“Every single day?

"Every single one of them.”

Ruby’s face turned kinda dark, like a shadow, and Oscar felt the exact moment in which she spaced out just like he did because when he watched her there, he thought about all the times they’ve spent together. All the patrolling nights, all the movie nights or videogames afternoons, all the times she went back to the movie theater stairs because Danna, Adrian and her shared a brain cell and they always left Oscar trapped there alone, all the times went out to eat, all the times they went to the arcade in the mall, all the times they tried to flirt but failed miserably; the day they met at the Trials. 

The very first day Oscar saw that freckled face and those hazel eyes; the very first day he saw that wide smile, which was an important and representative feature in Ruby. 

A smile that stayed there and made her seem like a skyscraper and lighted up her whole face. 

All while she was in pain. Because she never let her pain define her. It was part of her but it wasn't her. 

She was wonderful, brave, strong, beautiful and… Ruby. 

She wasn’t her pain. She was Ruby. Just like that. 

She was a Renegade and a hero even without her powers because, even if she didn’t have them, she would still be Ruby. The happiest person Oscar had ever met even though she was always in physical pain. 

“Are you scared?” Ruby asked, shily but also with this “I’m sorry” look. 

“I’m not. ” Oscar answered immediately, as he kissed her hand. “ I’m proud, and I think you’re amazing." 

"You’re amazing too.” Ruby got closer until they could rub their noses together. “The most amazing guy I’ve ever met." 

"That’s why we make a good couple. ” Oscar said. His voice sounded like a whisper. 

They laughed together again

In the end, they did end up going out to have dinner. 


End file.
